Issue #11 - Winter 2011
“Building a just, secure, sustainable and
COVERING THE POLITICS OF FOOD
WWW.SAVINGSEEDS.WORDPRESS.COM
GOIN’ OUT — The End of a Maine Potato Farm
Young family farmer speaks out about Frito Lay and the future of farming in Aroostook County
The following exclusive interview with Travis
Roy from Southern Aroostook County was
conducted in December, 2010. Names and loca-
tions have been altered to assure anonymity.
Saving Seeds: Tell me about your family’s farm
and where you grew up.
Travis Roy: I grew up in [Southern
Aroostook County], Maine, on a potato
farm, farm family. Three years ago was the
first year since 1894 my family hasn’t
grown potatoes [on my family farm].
Before that they grew potatoes in Northern
Aroostook County and in Canada. When
my dad grew up they had potatoes, dairy
herd, obviously crops being consistent —
corn, potatoes, grain, and hay. When my
father’s younger brother left for college
my grandfather sold the dairy herd and
we were straight potatoes after that. My
father moved back home in the early 80’s
to start a family and he started farming on
his own and eventually two or three years
later joined forces with my uncle and
grandfather who had been growing pota-
toes in [my home town] the entire time. It
would have been ten years after that that
my grandfather retired, and then it was
my father and uncle. Then my uncle got
out of the business and it was just my
father. The most we ever had was 250 acres
of potatoes and another 200-300 acres of
Federal Court Orders First-Ever Destruction of a GMO Crop
Finds Government and Monsanto rushed to illegally plant herbicide resistant crop
San Francisco, CA — [On Novem-
ber 30, 2010] Federal District Judge Jef-
frey S. White issued a preliminary
injunction ordering the immediate
destruction of hundreds of acres of
genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet
seedlings planted in September after
finding the seedlings had been planted
in violation of federal law. The ruling
comes in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice
and Center for Food Safety on behalf of
a coalition of farmers, consumers, and
conservation groups. The lawsuit was
filed on September 9, shortly after the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
revealed it had allowed the seedlings to
be planted.
The court outlined the many ways
in which GE sugar beets could harm
the environment and consumers, not-
ing that containment efforts were insuf-
ficient and past contamination inci-
dents were “too numerous” to allow
the illegal crop to remain in the ground.
In his court order, Judge White noted,
“farmers and consumers would likely
suffer harm from cross-contamination”
between GE sugar beets and non-GE
crops. He continued, “the legality of
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
• Consolidation of fishing industry mirrors ag, page 3
• Local Food, Local Rules, page 4
• Eat and Drink with Merry: Making Kombucha, page 5
democratic food system.”
PO BOX 51, SEDGWICK, MAINE 04676
Aroostook County potato harvest, October, 1940
grain. Most of [the potatoes] were sold to
Frito Lay for chip stock.
SS: Would it be fair to say you left the farm in
search of work?
TR: No, because when I left I knew the
farm was always there. At any point in my
life when I left to go to college or anywhere
I was always able to go home to the farm
Center for Food Safety
Defendants’ conduct does not even
appear to be a close question,” noting
that the government and Monsanto
tried to circumvent his prior ruling,
which made GE sugar beets illegal.
Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, lead
counsel for the plaintiffs, said, “USDA
thumbed its nose at the judicial system
and the public by allowing this crop to
be grown without any environmental
review. Herbicide resistant crops just
like this have been shown to result in
more toxic chemicals in our soil and
water. USDA has shown no regard for
the environmental laws, and we’re
pleased that Judge White ordered the
appropriate response.”
Plaintiff Center for Food Safety’s
Senior Staff Attorney George Kimbrell
said, “Today’s decision is a seminal vic-
tory for farmers and the environment
and a vindication of the rule of law. The
public interest has prevailed
over USDA’s repeated efforts to imple-
ment the unlawful demands of the
biotech industry.”
The plaintiffs — The Center for
Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance,
High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the
FREE
207-244-0908
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Notes from the Raw Milk
Liberation Front .......................2
Small-Scale Fishermen Face
Big Losses Under New
Program .............................3
News & Notes ........................3
Jack Delano, photographer/Library of Congress
Local Food, Local Rules ..........4
Eat and Drink . . . with Merry
Meet Anna, The New Activist
in My Kitchen .....................5
TR: I don’t think the timing is right. It’s
been a pretty drastic change in lifestyle
for my family, for my father specifically.
We have a lot of ideas, a lot of discussions
about the future, where things are pro-
and work and survive and make money. If
gressing and what we’re doing. But my
I really wanted to leave here right now I
father is in his mid 50’s, he’s not ready to
could survive, in the woods, in the fields,
mortgage everything all over again to
working for other farmers, doing anything
start on a new venture in another aspect of
of the sort. That is the one stronghold that
agriculture. It’s a gradual process.
I don’t have to worry about.
SS: So if you could you would, you just choose
not to.
See GOIN’ OUT on page 7
Sierra Club — had immediately
sought a court order to halt the plant-
ing. On September 28 Judge White
ruled that USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
had violated the National Environ-
mental Policy Act (NEPA) by allowing
the plantings without analyzing the
potential environmental, health, and
socioeconomic impacts of growing
GE sugar beets. Judge White heard
testimony from the parties during a
three-day hearing in November
before issuing today’s ruling.
Monsanto created “Roundup
Ready” crops to withstand its Round-
up herbicide (with the active ingredi-
ent glyphosate), which it then sells to
farmers together with its patented
seed, for which it charges farmers a
Meg Nicol photo
substantial “technology fee.” Earlier
this year, the Department of Justice
Sugar beet.
See DESTRUCTION OF GMO CROP on page 8
PO Box 51
Sedgwick, ME 04676
Page 2
ABOUT
Food for Maine’s Future is pleased
to present our eleventh issue of Sav-
ing Seeds. Named after the age old
practice threatened by a rapidly
consolidating seed industry and
U.S. and international laws that
restrict farmer’s rights, to the bene-
fit of powerful multinational corpo-
rations, this bi-annual newspaper
provides readers with the latest
news and views from the growing
international movement for food
sovereignty. Please share it with a
friend.
Eleventh Issue: Winter 2011
Circulation: 5,000 print run
SAVING SEEDS
A Publication of
Food for Maine’s Future
www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
Food for Maine’s Future
PO Box 51
Sedgwick, ME 04676
Publisher
Food for Maine’s Future
Editor
Bob St.Peter
Layout/Design/Production
Lynn Pussic
Food for Maine’s Future Graphic
Eric G
Saving Seeds Logo Design
Beehive Collective
Board of Directors:
Rachel Katz
CR Lawn
Merry Hall
Betsy Garrold
Ryan Parker
The articles in this publication do not
necessarily reflect the views or posi-
tions of Food for Maine’s Future.
Food for
Maine’s Future
Mission Statement
Food for Maine’s Future seeks to
build a just, secure, sustainable and
democratic food system to the bene-
fit of all Maine farmers, communi-
ties, and the environment. U
Saving Seeds — Winter 2011
Notes from the Raw Milk Liberation Front
An edited version of this article was orig-
inally published in the Bangor Daily News,
November 26, 2010.
It might surprise the majority of
Mainers that the FDA and CDC have
been spending lots of our tax dollars
raiding small farms, sending FBI agents
into stores, guns drawn, misleading
consumers, shutting down family
cheese artisans and more. Indeed, these
federal agencies are also enlisting the
help of the Maine Centers for Disease
Control and the Maine Department of
Agriculture. The latter has been issuing
Cease and Desist Orders to family farms
(in Maine) who sell milk to their neigh-
bors. Raw milk is suddenly a front burn-
er issue and now Maine’s top health
officials are declaring publicly that raw
milk is a ‘public health risk’.
An article by Dr. Stephen Sears,
which ran in the Bangor Daily News in
October, probably left readers wonder-
ing why it was relevant and what they
should do about the deadly toxin, raw
milk. You can find the article by search-
ing for, “Got Raw Milk? Bursting the
bubble of unpasteurized milk” on the
BDN website. In the ‘article’, Dr. Sears
notes that between 1998 and 2008, raw
milk was responsible for 2 deaths in the
United States. Obviously, Dr. Sears’ sim-
ply stated numbers from agency press
releases and emails rather than actually
looking at the Foodborne Outbreak
Online Database. There, he would have
found that indeed, in the decade
between 98 and 2008, in a country now
home to a population of over 300 mil-
lion, raw milk caused 2 deaths. What he
neglected to mention regarding “public
health” was that in 2007 alone, in just
Massachusetts, there were 3 deaths from
pasteurized milk. How could Dr. Sears’
miss this information when he is so con-
cerned about “public health”? Presum-
ably, the same way he could quote an
oft-stated CDC figure of 1614 reported
illnesses from raw milk. Why the CDC
uses this figure is unbeknownst to the
population since their own data reveals
1254 reported illnesses for the decade in
question. All of this data is available
online thanks to a freedom of informa-
tion act request.
Dr. Sears also mentioned in his ‘arti-
cle’ that many worldwide health organ-
izations “. . . investigate disease outbreaks
associated with raw milk and warn that the
bacteria occasionally found in raw milk
make it unsafe to consume.” One of the
agencies he points to for example is the
FDA. Frankly, I hope that Dr. Sears’
readers will remember that the FDA and
other ‘worldwide health organizations’
have investigated a great many things
and come to some incredible conclu-
sions. rBGH anyone? Should we really
be relying upon an agency that oversees
allowable limits of carcinogens and
Courtesy of A Seed Europe
RESISTANCE IS FERTILE
other toxins in our food supply, when
that agency allows for limits other than
0%?
Further, Dr. Sears says that, “pasteur-
ization kills dangerous pathogens. Raw milk
DOES NOT. Pasteurization DOES save
lives.” Here the state’s epidemiologist
seems to be making a mistake that is
common among most people with an
ill-suppressed agenda ñ forgetting his-
torical fact. There is a general anthropo-
logical consensus that about 7000 years
ago, humans evolved adult lactose tol-
erance. So for the last 7000 years,
humans have not only survived but
thrived on milk. Indeed, the ability to
consume milk past the age of infancy
gave some populations a great jump on
the evolutionary ladder. Only in the last
two hundred or so years did milk
become ‘unsafe’ to consume. Actually,
this applies to many types of food. Raw
milk was never the problem. Industrial-
ization was.
Only when production began to
become centralized and milk (and other
foods) began to be transported over
long distances, did these foods become
unsafe. Pasteurization was a band-aid
solution for a completely manufactured
problem. The same is true today and
even more so with the intense consoli-
dation of agriculture in the last 40 years.
Raw milk, grass-fed meat and egg prod-
ucts, produce grown in organic, biologi-
cally active soil and on-farm processing
of foods that are sold or traded among
local people, have sustained human
populations throughout the entirety of
our agricultural existence. Yet, Dr. Sears
claims that pasteurization of raw milk is
saving lives and is necessary for health.
So what’s going on here?
This is part of a nationwide cam-
paign to take away your right to eat and
feed your children healthy, real food.
Sound like a conspiracy theory? Don’t
take my word for it. Take the FDA’s. The
Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
recently sued the FDA because its ban
on interstate sales of raw milk is uncon-
stitutional. In the motion to dismiss, the
FDA stated the following: “There is no
right to consume or feed children any partic-
ular food. There is no generalized right to
bodily and physical health.”
Community
Radio
A Voice of Many Voices...
Diverse Music
Alternative News & Public Affairs
89.9 FM
Downeast & Midcoast Maine
102.9 FM Bangor, Maine
& live on the Web at
www.weru.org!
office: 207-469-6600 - email: info@weru.org
WERU - PO Box 170 - East Orland, Maine 04431
www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
Scared? It gets worse. Read the entire
brief at ftcldf.org. Raw milk is simply
the current, easy target. The reasons are
that raw milk consumption does exist
but certainly is not “common in Maine”.
The farmers who tend to sell raw milk
are not ‘dairy operators’ but diversified,
small, family farmers. The farmer who
provides my raw milk, milks just two
cows by hand. These people cannot
afford to fight the legal battles required
to combat the government.
But raw milk is just one battle. S510,
the “food safety” bill will change the
local food landscape at just the time
when a critical mass of people is waking
up to the horrors of the current food sys-
tem. Set aside the poisons, run-off, and
torture of animals, workers and families
if you can. Just look at actual public
health issues. Where are food borne ill-
nesses produced? They’re generated by
huge, globalized agribusiness proces-
sors from eggs to spinach to peanut but-
ter. Not from the small family farms pro-
viding a safe alternative, despite Dr.
Sears’ barely veiled claims to the con-
trary. Hundreds of thousands of people
are suddenly realizing that the industri-
al food system with which they live is
the Titanic. Now that a growing number
of people are looking for lifeboats, the
people steering the ship are worried.
You can dismiss this as conspiracy theo-
ry if you want. If so, I wish you luck. But
if I was you, I would search MOFGA.
org or Google and find some local farm-
ers and artisans who can provide what
you need and establish a relationship,
because things are going to get interest-
ing soon. Consider the food supply of
the Soviet Union just before it collapsed,
or France before their revolution. Food
is an important tool of social control and
the tool is getting away from its opera-
tors. They are trying desperately to rein
it in, thus the statements by government
agency doctors in the court of public
opinion. I wonder what the doctors and
federal agents are going to eat when sal-
monella and e-coli from the system are
all that’s on offer.
Ryan Parker is a former staff member of
the United States House of Representatives.
Currently, he runs a diversified, beyond
organic, small family farm in Newport and
writes in Winterport.
Democracy Now!
airs 5:00-6:00 PM
Monday - Friday
Free Speech Radio News
airs 4:30-5:00 PM
Monday - Friday
www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com Saving Seeds — Winter 2011 Page 3

Small-Scale Fishermen Face Big Losses NEW S & NOTES

Under New Program THOUSANDS GATHER
Catch Shares: A Way to Consolidate Fishing IN THE STREETS OF
Andrianna Natsoulas
CANCUN CALLING FOR
REAL SOLUTIONS TO
Just as a few powerful season. It’s going to keep the CLIMATE CHANGE
entities are preventing fam- price down. And the crabs (Cancún, Q.R, Mexico, 7
ily farmers from supplying won’t last as long. They will December 2010) In the midst of an
healthy, local and whole- be looking farther and wider exaggerated police operation,
some food to their commu- for crabs. This is modern some ten thousand people took to
nities, family fishermen are management basically back the main streets of Cancún in the
quickly being pushed off firing on the fisheries. I Marcha Campesina Indígena y
their boats to make way for believe a few people think Social (Indigenous and Social
fishing rights to be traded they are doing the right
Peasant March) called by La Vía
on the stock market. thing. But they aren’t looking
Campesina, chanting the much
Catch shares is a new at the whole picture when
repeated slogan summarising the
management regime fac- they are making these poli-
protesters’ demands: “Yes to
ing fishing communities cies. They’re not looking at
Cochabamba, no to REDD.”
throughout the country. In the reverberations through-
“It was very brave of La Vía
reality, they are Individual out the fleet and the other
Campesina to go out into the
Fishing Quotas (IFQ), fisheries. We have to make a
streets at all, given all the pres-

which allots each fisher- living with these boats. If

sure and the forces either directly

man a certain quota of fish you take away a third of my

opposed to its mobilisation or that

they can catch or lease to year, I’m going to try and

suggested they keep it light”, said

another fisherman. The find that in another fishery if

Paul Nicholson, member of the

quota is based on catch his- I can, which puts more pres-

international coordination of the

tory and privatizes a public sure on that fishery. It throws

resource by ensuring each every thing out of balance
fisherman owns his or her and in my opinion that’s
Andrianna Natsoulas
peasant movement.
The contingent mobilised for a
good part of the day, in a session

that started at 8 in the morning

piece of the pie. The bigger what management is doing and ended at 5 in the afternoon,
the boat, the bigger the to this fishery.” traveling both on foot and by bus.
catch history, and the big- Tele Aadsen, Salmon troll Nicholson stresses the issue, reit-
ger the catch share, and Ray Driscoll, F/V Karenlyn, Rye, New Hampshire fisherwoman from Sitka, erated in several languages, using
then the little guys lose out. Alaska: “With salmon, fisher- different, including artistic, means,
This policy system was men have done a good job in during the march: “We demand
pushed in the back door at getting active with policies
that we say no to REDD (Reducing
the National Marine Fish-
eries Service by a few pow-
“ [Catch shares] is set up for the
strongest, greediest boats to survive. and the allocation of the
quota. As the west coast fish-
Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation in Developing
erful interests without ade- ery is going through such
Countries) and no to false solu-
The small family owned boats cannot
quate public input. decline, it is hard to believe
tions, we want measures of sys-
From New Hampshire ” the abundance of salmon up
survive a system like this. temic change that deal with the
to California to Alaska, here. It is hard to explain the
root of the climate crisis.”
fishermen see IFQ’s as the self-governance and moni-
The peasant leader, who is from

death knell for small-scale toring that happens in Alas-

the Basque Country, informed us

family fishing communi- ka to protect the stocks.

that forums, marches and other

ties. Hear what some fish- There are individual fishing

activities took place throughout the

ermen have to say about quotas for halibut and we

day in more than 37 countries, in

catch shares in their fishery. had a choice between a house

response to La Vía Campesina’s

Jay Driscoll, Gillnet fish- and a halibut permit. There is

call to create Miles de Cancún,
aimed at putting global pressure
erman from Rye, New a bolt of terror that may come on the negotiations at the climate
Hampshire: “The ones that our way for salmon.” change
kept on working and work- Fishermen around the summit.
ing and almost harming the coasts see some basic solu- “The COP16 people live on
resource, the ones that tions to catch shares. The cod another planet, that’s proven even
greedily went about their populations on the east coast by the place where they meet: the
ways, the most copious, have been rebuilding at Moon Palace, they’re lunatics that
strongest, biggest vessels tremendous levels over a ten don’t live in the real world. We, on
are the ones that will be plus year period when given
the other hand, are on Earth, par-
able to survive a catch a chance. California crab fish-
ticipating in the struggle for life,”
share system like this ermen developed a mecha-
joked Nicholson.
because they have the most nism to control the number
Alberto Gómez, representative
allocation today. It is set up of crabs taken and ensure the
of La Vía Campesina Región Norte
for the strongest, greediest fishery remains healthy. The
de América (North American
boats to survive. Because Alaskan salmon fishery is
Region), agrees: “The governments
the small family owned robust with community in-
represented in the COP16 need to

boats cannot survive a sys- volvement in policy setting.

stop talking business and start

tem like this. There just If fisheries policies are given

talking about the climate; the

isn’t enough quota to go a chance to work, they can

REDD and the coal markets are

around. Cause the bigger work. Unfortunately, the

just businesses and opportunities

boats can always work National Marine Fisheries

for the expansion of control by the
Andrianna Natsoulas

cheaper, they are more effi- Service often changes the

multinationals.”
“We demand that the
cient, they are easier to rules before they have the Cochabamba Villages Agreement
catch. We have already lost chance to work. The healthi- be considered in the negotiation
5 boats this year. We will est fisheries are the ones document so that rich countries
lose more next year. And it Tele Aadsen, F/V Nerka, Sitka, Alaska where the coastal communi- make a commitment to reduce
will just be a few people ties thrive. Those are the fish- their greenhouse gas emissions by
owning the fishery at that point. That’s man from Ft. Bragg, California: “The eries where the communities are part half before the end of this decade,
where the future is going to be in a fish- brand new thing that is going to put of the solution. When entire communi- and that it is instituted in the Inter-
ery like this. Unless they do some kind more pressure on this fishery is this IFQ ties are dependent on a resource, they national Tribunal of Climate and
of limits on how much you can take per program in the west coast trawl fishery. will take the necessary steps to ensure
Environmental Justice, amongst
boat. I can see maybe some people will It is brand new. This is our first catch that it is available for generations to
other measures,”
survive, but a system how its set up shares program on the west coast in the come.
he adds.
today is the guy with the most money trawl fleet and it is across the board. It The statements above come from
“Peasant agriculture cools the
is going to win. Without a change in the might only take some of those boats “Food Voices: Stories of the Food Sov-
planet and can guarantee the right
administration, I don’t see any solu- two or three months to catch what they ereignty Movement,” which introduces
to food for everyone via policies
tions. Not without a change. And it’s have to catch and then they’ll go crab- food sovereignty by profiling the farmers
that promote food sovereignty”
going to have to start from the top bing. So, that puts more pressure on the and fishermen who put food on our tables.
affirms Gómez.

down.” crab fishery. That means more and big- For more information, please visit to
Ben Platt, Troll and pot crab fisher- ger boats fishing longer, later in the www.foodvoices.org. U
continued on page 4
Page 4 Saving Seeds — Winter 2011 www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com

NEW S & N OT ES Local Food, Local Rules

TEEN POTATO PICKERS Maine towns prepare to introduce landmark local food ordinances
DWINDLE IN PI Bob St.Peter
(Author’s note: In the interest of full disclo-
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The num-
sure, I was peripherally involved in the
ber of Presque Isle High School stu-
drafting of this ordinance and am support-
dents who worked during this year’s

ing its passage in my town.)

potato harvest was the lowest it
has been in the past 10 years.

WESTERN HANCOCK COUNTY,

According to the results of a survey

MAINE — While debate over new fed-

of high school students, only 105

eral food safety regulations engulfed

performed harvest-related work dur-

food and farm circles this past year, a

ing the three-week break. That com-
pares with 141 students who
worked the harvest in 2009 and
132 in 2005.
This year’s harvest-related jobs
included hand picker (six students),
harvester (35), potato house (27),
School Farm (24), truck driver (five),
windrower (three) and babysitter for
group of family farmers, farmworkers,
and farm patrons were quietly and
meticulously penning their own ‘food
rules’. The group met around a farm-
house table during the busy summer
and fall months to discuss and find res-
olutions to the regulatory challenges
faced by small-scale farmers and food

Bridget Besaw photo

parents so they could work in the
processors. They chose to do what
fields (three), while two worked at
small groups of citizens across the U.S.
Ag World Support Systems, LLC in
are doing to confront pressing social,
Easton.
health, and environmental concerns in
Of those students, which repre-
their communities — they wrote a local
sents 19.2 percent of the school’s Quill’s End Farm, Penobscot, Maine
ordinance. It took five months and
population, 41 were seniors, 39
countless hours of research, edits, and democratic decision making, the Ordi- of the Blue Hill Peninsula Chamber of
were juniors, 18 were sophomores
vetting, but by December the Local nance appears to have struck a chord Commerce the chamber board was in
and nine were freshmen. They

Food and Self-Governance Ordinance across the political spectrum, garnering unanimous support. “We talked about
earned, in total, $121,587.

of 2011 was in the hands of four town’s support from local Democrat and a number of things that have come up
Survey results show that 21

Selectmen in Western Hancock County. Republican candidates last fall while in the past and one that stood out for us
other freshmen did nonharvest

(As of press time, Penobscot, Blue still in draft form. Supporters of the was how many small-time crab pickers
work, while 120 did not work at all.

Hill, Sedgwick, and Brooksville have Ordinance represent a diverse range of were put out of business because of
Seventeen sophomores did nonhar-

placed the ordinance on their warrants age, politics, and economic class. Run- unfounded regulations,” said Chamber
vest-related work, while 91 were

unemployed. Forty-one juniors did
other work and 70 did not work,
while 52 seniors did nonrelated har-
vest work, and 31 did not have
jobs.
In presenting the survey results
to the SAD 1 school board recently,
Superintendent Gehrig Johnson
reminded directors that the board
agreed several years ago to revisit
the potato harvest issue if the per-
centage of students doing harvest-
related work got down to 15 per-
cent.
“We’re within that range that we
use as a criteria,” he said, noting
that SAD 1, Caribou, Fort Fairfield,
for 2011 town meeting and public hear- ning parallel with the Ordinance effort Board Vice President Cullen Schneider.
ings are being scheduled.) appears to be the building of a “party “That made it clear to the board what
At the heart of the Local Food and of local community” as described by the stakes were about.”
Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011 Wendell Berry in his essay, Conserving With rights comes responsibilities,
(Ordinance) is a provision exempting Communities. and the Ordinance places both squarely
direct food sales from state and federal “All these conventional affiliations on the shoulders of the farmers, food
regulations, including licensing and are now meaningless, useful only to processors, and their informed patrons.
inspection. The Ordinance defines local those in a position to profit from Recognizing the difference between
food as “any food or food product that public bewilderment. A new politi- face-to-face food sales and long, anony-
is grown, produced, or processed by cal scheme of opposed parties, how- mous supply chains, the Ordinance
individuals who sell directly to their ever, is beginning to take form. This asserts that this relationship is unique,
patrons through farm-based sales or is essentially a two-party system, valuable, and in need of protecting.
buying clubs, at farmers markets, road- and it divides over the fundamental “We have faith in our citizensí abili-
side stands, fundraisers or at communi- issue of community. One of these ty to educate themselves and make
ty social events.” Restaurants and retail parties holds that community has no informed decisions. We hold that
stores are not covered under this Ordi- value; the other holds that it does. federal and state regulations impede

nance. One is the party of the global econo- local food production and constitute
Mars Hill and Easton continue to

Authors and proponents of the my; the other I would call simply the a usurpation of our citizensí right to
have a three-week harvest break.

Ordinance say it is a necessary step to party of local community. The global foods of their choice. We support
“Many schools are getting away

protect Maine’s remaining family party is large, though not populous, food that fundamentally respects
from having a full harvest; Ashland

farms and preserve traditional agricul- immensely powerful and wealthy, human dignity and health, nourish-
doesn’t have it all, and some

ture. They question fundamental self-aware, purposeful, and tightly es individuals and the community,
schools have pared it down to two

organized. The community party is and sustains producers, processors

weeks. It’s all over the place.”
Full article can be found at
http://caribou.maineville.com/detai
l/159930.html.
Scott Mitchell Johnson, Presque
Isle Star-Herald, November 25,
2010
SENATE APPROVES
PAYMENT OF BLACK FARM-
ERS’ CLAIMS
WASHINGTON — The Senate
approved $4.55 billion to settle
longstanding charges that the feder-
al government had denied or under-
paid aid to black farmers and mis-
managed trust funds for American
Indians.
The bill sets aside $1.15 billion
to resolve racial bias claims brought
by black farmers against the Agricul-
ture Department and $3.4 billion to
pay claims stemming from the
Department of the Interior’s han-
assumptions about who should be
making the rules governing our local
food economy, and whether the contin-
ued demise of rural communities is
inevitable. The Ordinance connects the
decline of farming and farmwork as a
viable livelihood and the consolidation
of corporate agriculture, addressing
both under Section 3, Preamble and cock County have also voiced their al food regulations. Heather Retberg,
Purpose.
“We recognize that family farms,
sustainable agricultural
practices, and food pro-
cessing by individuals,
families and non-corpo-
rate entities offers sta-
bility to our rural way
of life by enhancing the
economic, environmen-
tal and social wealth
of our community. As
such, our right to a local
food system requires us
only now coming aware of itself; it is and the environment.”
widely scattered, highly diverse, As much a statement on the right to
small though potentially numerous, community self-determination as a
weak though latently powerful, and food policy document, the Local Food
poor though by no means without and Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011
resources.” firmly supports local decision making
Business leaders in Western Han- in the face of tightening state and feder-
support for the Ordinance. When it was owner with her husband Phil of Quill’s
discussed at the October, 2010, meeting End Farm in Penobscot, notes that
there are limitations to
bureaucratic government
agencies when it comes
to creating scale-appro-
priate regulations for
diversified farms and
cottage food processors.
“We began this endeavor
not to tear down govern-
mental structures or defy
the government or its
laws,” she said. “We be-

to assert our inherent came involved because

dling of American Indian trust

right to self-govern- rulemakers at the agency

funds.

ment. We recognize the level of government

The Senate approved the meas-
UNH Cooperative Extension

authority to protect deemed our work illegiti-

ure by unanimous consent on Friday

that right as belonging mate.”

evening and sent it to the House.

to the Town of (name of During public hearings

Similar measures have passed the

last year on rule changes

House twice, and President Obama
has said he would sign the bill into town) .”
law. Despite (or perhaps to small-scale poultry
because of) its direct Surplus on a farm can be turned into farm income with some basic equip- processing, Heather and
assertions of the right to ment and time-tested know-how. Phil both gave testimony
continued on page 5

www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
about their farming practices and how
important their seasonal poultry opera-
tion was to their farm income.
Although the QAR cited potential
health risks if outdoor poultry process-
ing or shared facilities were allowed,
no evidence of current or past food
borne illness outbreaks by unregulated
poultry growers was cited.
“The assumption that all poultry are
carrying campylobacter and listeria
because they are raised in barns is true
under their paradigm,” said Phil.
“When you change the methods of
farming and focus on health instead of
volume, when you shift the paradigm,
the assumptions don’t hold water.”
Quill’s End Farm chickens, turkeys,
and ducks are raised on pasture with
quality feed and forage. As a result,
their birds are healthy at slaughter and
safe and delicious for the table, even if
you don’t cook the bird until it is dry,
rubbery, and tasteless.
“Health in the animals and integrity
in the farmer, that provides food safe-
ty,” adds Phil. “Joel Salatin’s good agri-
cultural practices ought to be adopted,”
he suggested. “’Mark it down, if it
smells bad or it’s not beautiful, it’s not
good farming.’”
Heather added that the Maine
Department of Agriculture and Maine
Legislature didn’t object to their farm-
ing practices based on “anything prob-
lematic in our process,” but rather
“because there is funding available
from a federal level agency.” She
referred to the money received by
Maine’s Red Meat and Poultry Inspec-
tion Program from the USDA, about
$200,000 per year. This funding was
cited by both the co-chair of the Agri-
culture, Conservation, and Forestry
Committee and the QAR director as a
principle reason they could not allow
outdoor processing in the rules.
Some of Quill’s End patrons testi-
fied in support of outdoor processing,
noting both the quality of the food and
the integrity of those who raised it.
Patrons testified that they were aware
of the practices engaged in by Quill’s
End Farm and they were in full support
of them continuing to be allowed to do
so legally. The transparency provided
by the ability to walk on the farm,
inspect for themselves, and talk with
the farm owners before buying was
enough assurance of safe, healthy food.
“The USDA requires adherence to
rules (not laws) that are completely
divorced from the reality of relation-
ship-based farming in our communi-
ty,” said Heather. “Our farm’s patrons
were asking us to provide products
which the QAR deemed illegal. Farm-
ers and farm patrons across the state
conveyed that to the agency to little
avail.”
As for pursuing a remedy through
their town government rather than
other alternatives — like selling on the
black market — Heather noted that
they “felt it necessary to exercise our
constitutional rights instead of break-
ing the law.”
For Phil and Heather, their involve-
ment in the Ordinance comes from
their personal experience with an over-
ly complex regulatory system and a
spiritual connection to life on their fam-
ily farm. “Regulations ought to reflect
the fact that some farmers raise com-
modities,” says Phil, “and some raise
food for their neighbors.” The Local
Food and Self-Governance Ordinance
of 2011 appears to be just the thing
needed to ensure Quill’s End Farm and
others can do the latter in ways that
make sense to their farm, their patrons,
and their communities. U
Eat and Drink . . .
Saving Seeds — Winter 2011
w i t h M er r y
Meet Anna, The New
Activist in My Kitchen
Kombucha fermenting. Note the large number of SCOBYs.
I received a kombucha brewing kit
for Christmas. Mmm...mm Good! This
fermented sweet tea is very easy to
make, especially if you have more
patience than I do and can wait four or
five days for the fermentation to take
place before tasting it. It tastes rather
like sweet apple cider that has just
started to ferment, with the same effer-
vescent kick. Never again will I need to
buy or be contaminated by a commer-
cial soda! This is one more declaration
of independence from globalized
agribusiness.
The ferment is caused by a SCOBY
(acronym for symbiotic colony of bacte-
ria and yeast.) “Yuck!” you might say.
Not really. The SCOBY looks like a
translucent mushroom. Because it’s
alive and will continue to thrive in my
kitchen as long as I tend it lovingly, I’ve
named mine Anna. The kombucha she
magically produces in her ceramic
cauldron is an energizer, anti-oxidant,
and detoxifier. I feel a bit like a sorcer-
ess (or is that witch?) as I mix up the
brew. What’s more, Anna reproduces,
so I will have free gifts with which to
liberate my friends.
Along with Anna and her cauldron
came a book, Wild Fermentation by San-
dor Ellix Katz. I had to love a book that
begins “For me, fermentation is a health
regimen, a gourmet art, a multicultural
adventure, a form of activism, and a spiri-
tual path all rolled into one.” This book
strengthened my understanding that
fermented foods and drinks are literal-
ly alive with flavor and nutrition. Not
only does fermentation preserve food,
retain nutrients, and prevent spoilage
without grid-produced power, but it
improves the biota that inhabit our
guts, inducing improved digestion.
According to Katz:
“By eating a diversity of live fermented
foods, you promote diversity among micro-
bial cultures in your body. Biodiversity is
increasingly recognized as critical to the
survival of larger-scale ecosystems... Biodi-
Page 5
NEW S & NOTES
“It’s been a long time coming,
and it’s the right thing to do,” said
Ralph Paige, executive director of
the Federation of Southern Cooper-
atives/Land Assistance Fund, which
helps primarily African-American
farmers keep their land.
The black farmers’ case is an
outgrowth of Pigford v. Glickman, a
federal class-action lawsuit original-
ly settled in 1999. The Obama
administration agreed in February
to provide a second round of dam-
ages to people who were denied
earlier payment because they had
missed the deadlines for filing.
Ashley Southall, New York
Times, November 19, 2010
USDA PAYS MILLIONS IN
DAMAGES TO NATIVE
http://www.mnae.org/krs/
AMERICANS
The US Department of Agricul-
ture has agreed to pay $680 million
in damages to thousands of Native
American farmers who were denied
farm loans.
The agreement includes $80 mil-
versity is just as important at the micro
lion in farm debt forgiveness for the
level. Your body is an ecosystem that can
Native American plaintiffs. The suit
function more effectively when populated
covers Native Americans with dis-
by diverse species of organisms. Sure you
crimination claims against USDA for
can buy “probiotic” nutritional supple-
the years 1981 to 1999.
ments containing specific selected bacteria
Center for Rural Affairs, Decem-
that promote healthy digestion. But by fer-
ber 2010 newsletter
menting foods and drinks with wild
microorganisms present in your home envi-
MONSANTO FLOUNDERS
ronment, you become more interconnected
Monsanto is under the gun on a
with the world around you. Your environ-
number of different issues, and the
ment becomes you, as you invite the micro-
company has no magic elixir or engi-
neered fix to halt the corporation’s
bial populations you share the Earth with to
plummet from its recent position as
enter your diet and your intestinal ecology.”
Forbe’s Company of the Year.
So, as Louis Pasteur himself
Major cracks have formed in the
acknowledged in his later years,
Monsanto facade this past year.
microbes are not the enemy of human
Dropping fortunes appear to be the
health. Humanity has known this for
result of a combination of factors,
millennia. Until modern science and including ‘super weeds,’ the high
agribusiness intervened, this was com- cost of Monsanto seeds and inputs
mon knowledge. Starting probably
and competition on the herbicide
with mead, a wine fermented by allow-
front from China. Could Monsanto
ing honey combined with water simply
could be in a dive so precipitous it
to sit in the air, various tribes and cul-
won’t be able to recover?
tures of people have developed flavor-
Glyphosphate-resistant weeds
ful fermented delicacies from fruit, veg-
have proven to be a major Achilles
etables, grains, dairy products, meat,
heel for Monsanto. Glyphosphate is
and fish. Worldwide, fermentation is
the key ingredient in the corpora-
an important way of preserving three
tion’s main product, the herbicide it
staples of life: food, health, and local
calls Roundup. Obviously a field full
culture.
of resistant ‘super weeds’ is not
Especially in places like Maine with
good business for a farmer, and
short growing seasons, learning differ-
Monsanto recently announced it
ent methods of fermenting our food is
would issue millions in rebates to
farmers who use other herbicides.
crucial to our winter food security. It is
Stephen P. Bowles summarized
also an important way of reestablishing
the glyphosphate issue in a
our food sovereignty. We can team up
research paper on glyphosphate
with the tiniest, most maligned beings
resistance, published in PNAS earli-
in our environment to ferment a non-
er this year.
violent food revolution. How’s that for
“... History shows that threats to
activism for you?! food production have major reper-
Merry Hall is the author of BRING- cussions, including famine, war,
ING FOOD HOME: THE MAINE
and civil unrest. A major threat to
EXAMPLE which introduces readers to
food production occurs every single
over 100 people involved in Maine’s local
growing season, when wild plant
food community, revealing how true home-
species (weeds) infest crop fields.
land and food security are developing in
Humans have battled since the
Maine. She is a local food activist and
dawn of agriculture to control weeds
member of the Board of Directors of Food
and to minimize their negative influ-
for Maine’s Future. U
ence on food production. Modern
herbicides have largely replaced
human labor as the primary tool for
weed control, and this has con-
Saving Seeds Welcomes tributed significantly to the produc-
tivity of world cropping. However,
Your Letters to the Editor
despite the success of herbicides,
E-mail them to weeds remain a primary challenge
bob@foodformainesfuture.org to food production, in part because
or mail to: PO Box 51, selection pressure from herbicides
Sedgwick, ME 04676 has resulted in the evolution of
continued on page 6
Page 6
N EWS & N OTES c o n tin u e d
herbicide resistance in weeds.”
Initially, Monsanto paid lip serv-
ice to the topic of glyphosphate
resistance, but even this summer,
the corporation was still downplay-
ing the extent of the problem. CBC
News reported Monsanto said
‘resistance was often overstated.’
At the same time, Monsanto was
offering American farmers a $12
per acre rebate for using competi-
tors’ herbicides.
Read full article at
http://www.digitaljournal.com/print
/article/299576#ixzz19LhD5fhD
Stephanie Dearing,
Digital Journal,
October 23, 2010
US TARGETS EU OVER
GM CROPS
The US embassy in Paris
advised Washington to start a mili-
tary-style trade war against any
European Union country which
opposed genetically modified (GM)
crops, newly released WikiLeaks
cables show.
In response to moves by France
to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety
in late 2007, the ambassador,
Craig Stapleton, a friend and busi-
ness partner of former US presi-
dent George Bush, asked Washing-
ton to penalise the EU and particu-
larly countries which did not sup-
port the use of GM crops.
“Country team Paris recom-
mends that we calibrate a target
retaliation list that causes some
pain across the EU since this is a
collective responsibility, but that
also focuses in part on the worst
culprits.
The list should be measured
rather than vicious and must be
sustainable over the long term,
since we should not expect an
early victory. Moving to retaliation
will make clear that the current
path has real costs to EU interests
and could help strengthen Euro-
pean pro-biotech voices,” said Sta-
pleton, who with Bush co-owned
the St. Louis-based Texas Rangers
baseball team in the 1990s.
In other newly released cables,
US diplomats around the world are
found to have pushed GM crops as
a strategic government and com-
mercial imperative.
John Vidal, Guardian, January
3, 2011
NEWLY DISCLOSED
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
CONCLUDE GE SALMON
POSE A CRITICAL
THREAT TO MARINE
ENVIRONMENTS
FDA Declined to Disclose Evidence
During September Hearings on
Aquabounty Salmon
Adding a new twist to the contro-
versy over genetically engineered
(GE) salmon, the Center for Food
Safety (CFS) revealed today that, in
recent hearings on transgenic fish,
the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion (FDA) knowingly withheld a Fed-
eral Biological Opinion by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) prohibiting
the use of transgenic salmon in
open-water net pens pursuant to
the U.S. Endangered Species Act
(ESA).
“This adds further evidence that
in fact GE salmon pose a serious
continued on page 7
Saving Seeds — Winter 2011
GOIN’ OUT from page 1
SS: How did your father take losing the potato
business?
TR: Not well at all. It was the best decision
business-wise he could make at the time
but the transition in lifestyle is still not
easy. The one and only time I ever saw my
grandfather cry was the day my father told
him we weren’t going to grow potatoes
anymore. And I honestly think my father
went through some sort of depression. For
almost a year he didn’t know what to do
with himself. He didn’t know what to do
due to the debt load from not selling your
crop and the farm loans from the last 20-30
years and everything else. In the last two
years we managed to sell some land, a
$50,000 tractor, and a lot of potato equip-
ment which has in turn lightened the debt
load to a manageable level. Which is good
and bad. Now instead of having six farm
trucks we have two because we don’t real-
ly need more than two to haul grain,
which is where we are. If we decide that
we want to go larger we can buy a truck
cheap just like we sold them.
SS: With a smaller debt load are you able to
make money off the grain?
TR: No. The debt — between FHA
(Federal Housing Administration) and
operational loans and everything else we
took out every single year. It’s not one
year’s debt we’re trying to pay off, it’s 25
years of rolling over and rolling over.
There were years we had 20% interest
rates on an operational loan for that year.
‘Well, we’re going to plant again next year
so let’s just roll that over again.’
It was an accumulation of debt and the
buying of farms, a farm being a separate
tract of land. Back 10 years ago we bought
200 acres we had been renting a few miles
from the home farm. It was in two huge
fields. It was great, you know, we could set
in and it takes a week to dig 100 acres of
potatoes so it was worthwhile for us.
Buying that farm all got wrapped in the
farm loan. The “farm loan”, as it’s quoted.
That was this massive amount of funds,
but as long as you kept borrowing and
kept operating they would keep giving
you all the money you needed. Well, when
you stop, the interest on it. I mean at one
point in time we were looking at $800 a
month in interest only after we decided we
weren’t going to grow potatoes. Which
meant that I was sending like $500 a
month home. Because without any income
how is a farm supposed to pay for it? We
managed to put off the wolves long
enough to build up some equity and pay
off lump sums.
SS: Why is it so hard to be a potato farmer in
Aroostook County?
TR: My perspective is from doing business
with Frito Lay, I don’t know so much for
McCain growers, or the seed and table
stock growers. [Frito Lay] wants a farmer
to provide them with over 200 acres of
potatoes for consistency reasons and how
SS: When did you start working with Frito Lay
fast you can get all these potatoes to their
and how did that change your operation?
facilities when they need them. I can
TR: I can remember when we first started
remember when we first started with Frito
growing a single variety for Frito 20 years
it would take us a day to load a trailer full
ago. It was approximately a 20 acre por-
of potatoes bulk on the floor. We were run-
tion of our entire operation. We were
ning very small equipment, loading with
doing table stock and seed. Then the
old bucketed electric loaders and things
money was there for Frito, it was consis-
like that. It was a very slow process.
tent. Seed was hard because you had to
Towards the end of it we were loading an
hold your product until spring. Disease or
entire trailer in 45 minutes, based on main-
anything else is going to come out. Your
taining temperature and consistency with
bin melts and falls apart in March and all
Healthfood Store & Deli/Café
Gluten Free Products In-house Herbalist
Sugar Alternatives Free Monthly Talks
Best Fresh Produce Books & Magazines
Local Organic Fair Trade
(207)338-2532 www.belfast.coop
the product. It’s better for the potato —
temperature alone — for them all to get
dumped into the trailer at the same time.
Doors get closed at the same and it’s not
sitting there with temperature fluctuations
over an eight hour period while you’re
loading the trailer.
[Frito Lay] wanted everything washed.
That was one of the first big things. When
we had to start washing potatoes we
couldn’t use our old half-in-the-ground
“ The one and only time
I ever saw my grandfather
cry was the day my father
told him we weren’t going to
grow potatoes anymore.
potato houses we had forever because we
” you run into the alcoholics, the drug
didn’t have a water source, didn’t have
any way to get rid of the water. So we had
to progress into our new storage facilities.
When I was very young there were proba-
bly 20 farmers around that all had these
small potato houses. They grew less than
100 acres and they could store their entire
crop in this one little building. What we
progressed into was a very large facility,
some sort of a co-op. Everyone rented stor-
age in this facility and it provided the
modern processing line, the wash line,
everything. This was where we were load-
ing the trailers so fast.
SS: You moved into this facility after your con-
tract with Frito Lay?
TR: Oh yeah. This was a progression over
a matter of years. They kept encouraging
and pushing for more efficiency on a regu-
lar basis. It was to a point where with our
storage facility on one side of town there
was no way that someone could break into
a Frito market without being involved
with that because it was such a big jump to
go from doing table stock in your little tiny
potato house to chip stock. So it kind of
escalated — it ramped up so fast [in my
town] that if you weren’t on the train in the
beginning you weren’t going to get on it in
the end — unless you came in with a full
blown massive-scale operation. It was a lot
to take on for any small farmer.
But back to why it’s so hard to grow
potatoes [in Aroostook], we’re so far from
the nearest market. You take McCain’s in
Easton, we were south of I-95 therefore we
never had the option of contracts with
McCain because I-95 was their southern
boundary where they would have to pay
additional money for shipping to get the
potatoes to them. So they put this one
plant in Easton and you might as well
draw this great big circle of where they’ll
get their potatoes from. Years ago we had
a Humpty Dumpty plant in Scarborough
but that burned down. The next nearest
market is Boston for table stock. For pro-
cessing there’s Cape Cop out on the Cape,
but other than that it was Frito in Killingly,
Connecticut for processing.
of a sudden you have
no product to sell.
With the Frito we
could sell it over the
winter. You didn’t
have to bag it. We
managed to get rid of
our bagging line and
start going bulk. With
the seed everything
was loaded bulk into
the floor of the trailer.
Same with the chip
stock. Versus table
stock where you’ve
www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
got eight people on the processing line,
people grading, people bagging, stacking
them on pallets and that whole fiasco.
Handling potatoes bulk was much more
efficient.
SS: You needed less labor then?
TR: Much less labor. Labor became a sig-
nificant issue. My grandfather talks about
when back in the day going into town at
four o’clock in the morning and picking a
guy up on a street corner and taking him
out and putting him on your tractor. You
feed him at the end of the day, give him a
ride back into town and that was it. You
found people wanted to work, people
were fighting to work. Where now if
somebody is a good employee they have a
real job. They don’t work for minimum
wage on a farm. So unless you’re lucky,
addicts, and whoever you can scrounge
up. You can’t afford to pay someone
enough to survive on seasonal labor alone.
SS: Is it because your margins on the farm are
so slim that labor then becomes a real issue?
TR: I love this example — 20 years ago
what did you pay for 10 pounds of pota-
toes? Two-three dollars. Today, what do
you pay for 10 pounds of potatoes? Two-
three dollars.
Fertilizer costs have quadrupled, fuel
costs have quadrupled, equipment costs
have quadrupled. Storage is even more
than that. So all our margin of profit have
just shriveled. Disappeared.
SS: You said you scaled-up when you started
working with Frito Lay. Did you take on more
debt?
TR: Oh yeah, but it was a gradual process.
Some money was made. It was not like we
were put into debt by Frito. We were put
into debt because of poor farming prac-
tices or poor management decisions. You
get kicked and you get up and do it again.
Well how many times do you get knocked
down and keep getting up and putting
yourself in more and more of a hole rather
than making a drastic life change.
SS: So you think the failure of potatoes farm in
Aroostook County is because of bad manage-
ment rather than external market forces?
TR: Old techniques — I don’t think this is
the only reason but I definitely think it had
something to do with it. While agriculture
nationwide, world-wide was progressing
at these astronomical rates it seemed like
northern Maine was still. I knew a guy
who up until 7-8 years ago was growing
100 acres of potatoes with equipment from
the 1950’s and 60’s. He did it the old way.
He didn’t progress. He didn’t get the new
equipment. He was just working like he
was 40 years prior.
SS: What happened to him?
TR: He went out, too. Too small, too much
work, too many more things to keep up
with. There are farms located so close to
the Canadian border and there is a lot of
fungal pressure. You look across the street
into Canada and their fields are just melt-
ed, blight or whatever. Here we are on the
American side being regulated, forced to
apply fungicide every so many days or
plow your crop under. Those are your
options. The conditions and fungal pres-
sure year after year made quality control
very difficult. On the American side of the
border we are forced to apply fungicides
every so many days or plow your crop
under. Those are your options.
SS: Who were you being forced by?
TR: Under heavy late blight pressure the
Cooperative Extension would put down
recommendations for fungicide applica-
tions. Three day spray rotations, five day,
or eight, depending on how hot the pres-
sure was. In all honesty if you were a
source and you didn’t do something about
it and every single one of your neighbors
had a massive blight problem because you
didn’t take care of it I wouldn’t want to be
in your shoes. You didn’t just affect your
own livelihood you just wiped out all of
your friends and neighbors.
SS: Were there any subsidies available to you
www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
for potato or grain production?
TR: No. That’s the other part of my exam-
ple — the price of a bag of potatoes 20
years ago and today. Look at the subsidies
the milk industry is getting. Because it was
failing, and everyone knows they need
milk. But there are so many alternatives to
potatoes for a starch in your diet that it just
doesn’t have the priority.
SS: In our first conversation you talked about
the bonuses Frito Lay gave you initially. How
did that factor into your relationship with them
and how did that affect your operation?
TR: It was great when it was great. When
they needed the potatoes and we sent a
quality product down we got bonuses.
And the bonuses were excellent.
Phenomenal. Turns into a lot of money
after a few loads. So that’s when we
bought new equipment, had money to do
the big things. And then the next year we
wouldn’t get a single bonus.
SS: What do you attribute that to?
TR: How bad they needed them.
Connecticut is the only state in the north-
east where in-house testing is legal. So a
guy with a Frito Lay t-shirt on determines
the grade and quality of the load you send
down. So Atkin’s diet, fluctuations in the
market, everything else — all of a sudden
they’re not selling as many chips, they
don’t need as many potatoes. You send a
load down and they’ll reject it based on the
grade. When in all reality they would be
phenomenal. We would get them all the
way back to the farm, at the cost to the
farmer for trucking it down there and back
without selling the load, [and] the product
quality would be excellent. They’d look
perfectly fine. But they didn’t need them.
We even had a lab set up in our potato
house where we had our own fryolator,
our own slicer. We used the exact same oil
they used and we took samples before
they left our storage facility. And we knew
what the product was going down. But if
they didn’t need them the load got sent
back.
SS: What would you do with them when they
were rejected?
TR: We would market them someplace
else if we could, but all the other chip com-
panies, Cape Cod, Utz, whoever you can
think of, they have their own contracts.
They don’t have openings for stuff that
gets rejected from Frito. That wouldn’t be
very good business sense. Sometimes we
would try to work them into some of the
local table stock guys. They could try to
blend them in. They’re not a very good
eating potato. Starchy, dry, not very good
flavor. So a lot of the times they went to the
Saving Seeds Ad Policy
We will accept paid ads from all non-
profit organizations, educational institu-
tions and locally-owned commercial
businesses who support sustainable agri-
culture. Submissions may be made in
PDF, TIF or scanable hard copy, gray
scale only. Digital images, including
those embedded in PDFs, should be at
180 dpi. Payment must be received before
the ad can go to print unless prior
arrangements are made. Ads submitted
without payment or prior arrangement
are held until the next issue or until pay-
ment is sent. Food for Maine’s Future
publications are not “ad rags”, so space is
limited. Ads will be run on a first-come,
first-served basis. We reserve the right to
refuse any ad.
Note: Discounts are available for mul-
tiple ads or multiple runs. Contact us for
more information.
Ad Sizes Available
A) Size: 2 3/8" x 2 3/8" – ($20.00 per
issue/program)
B) Size 3 3/16" x 2" – standard business
card ($35.00 per issue/program)
C) Size: 2 3/8" x 4 7/8" ($50.00 per
issue/program)
D) Size: 4 7/8" x 2 3/8" ($50.00 per issue)
E) Size: 4 7/8" x 4 7/8" ($100.00 per
issue) U
Saving Seeds — Winter 2011
cows. We dumped them if we couldn’t sell
them. Or send them for potato flakes.
SS: You couldn’t sell them as seed potatoes?
TR: Everything had to be under their per-
mission. They had seed growers they had
approved and you’re growing their vari-
ety which they own. All these different
varieties the first two numbers in the name
of the variety was FL — which is Frito Lay
— 1833, 1533, 1867’s. They owned them.
There were a couple we grew they did not
own. Atlantics were one variety we har-
vested green right out of the field, literally
dug them green and loaded them into
trucks and shipped them to the plant. But
90% of what we grew for them they did
own.
SS: The last year you grew potatoes — what
happened there?
TR: We hauled 70-80% of our crop to the
field and dumped them in the winter
because they got rejected. Another issue
we had was when they tell you they need
this variety we would raise the tempera-
ture in the bin to break dormancy. They
will sit at 48 degrees to maintain dorman-
cy for the winter. When they want them
we’ll crank it up to 53 degrees and that will
cause the potato to break dormancy, gets
the sugars going, and it clears the flesh.
Once it’s at 53 degrees it’s got a 30 day
window before the flesh starts turning
brown. If we bring up the temperature and
they don’t take them, then we’re done.
What do you do with them? Once a potato
has gone brown it never comes back. You
can’t whiten them up again.
SS: Did you raise the temperature on an order
or cue from Frito Lay?
TR: Yeah, say this variety goes in March,
then a week before the beginning of March
or a week before they started taking that
variety we would increase the tempera-
ture so that when they called for them they
would be ready to go. Because if they want
them today and we need a week to get
them up to temperature then we’re out.
SS: So you take one tractor trailer load down
and they reject it...?
TR: Oh we must have taken five the first
day, they rejected four of them. We would
load eight trucks at time. If we had it our
way, when the first load got back then we
would try to send one load to see if they
would take it. If they did that then we
would send three the next day. If they did
that then we’d send five the next day. After
we got bruised on the first shipment we
weren’t going to smack it all again, but we
would send single loads or two loads and
one would take and then the next two
Page 7
wouldn’t. We literally kept trucking it back
and forth just as fast. And after five loads NEWS & NOTES co n t i n u ed
come back and now it’s been a month and
you’re running out of time. We tried to
threat to marine environments and
nurse them down but you’re just killing is another compelling reason for the
yourself. You’re looking at nearly $2000
FDA not to approve the fish for com-
per load to get them down there and haul
mercial use,” said Andrew Kimbrell,
them back. That covers maybe the fuel and
Executive Director of the Center for
driver.
Food Safety. “While the FDA
SS: Is it in the contract that you pay for all the
applauded the company’s choice of
shipping?
land-based containment as respon-
TR: When it comes back, yes, we’re
sible, it never revealed that it is ille-
responsible to reimburse through the bro-
gal in the U.S. to grow genetically
ker. It all goes through the broker. If the
engineered salmon in open-water
load gets sold — if Frito accepts it — then,
net pens.”
again the broker is the middle man of it all,
The Biological Opinion and sup-
he pays us after he takes out the trucking
plemental information, obtained
cost. So if the load goes down and back he
through a Freedom of Information
sends us a bill for the trucking cost.
Act (FOIA) request, challenge claims
by AquaBounty Technologies, the
SS: Based on your experiences and your view-
developer of the GE salmon, that
point what do you think the future of farming
the transgenic fish pose no threat
is in Aroostook County? to marine environments. The GE
TR: It’s going to be a diversity. The whole
Atlantic salmon under consideration
idea is diversification. The days of just
was engineered with growth hor-
growing potatoes are so long gone. It’s a
mone genes from an unrelated
waste. The unfortunate thing is the age
Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus
group of a lot of the farmers still going. It
tshawytscha) and DNA from the
has changed in the last couple years. There
is some younger blood — family members
anti-freeze genes of an eelpout
— that are having some involvement. At
(Zoarces americanus).
least in my area.
The Biological Opinion issued by
The days of growing just potatoes to a
FWS and NOAA’s National Marine
single market...yes, there’s going to be a
Fisheries Service (NMFS) to the
handful of the farmers that are going to
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in
supply McCain but if you wanted go up
2003 expresses concerns that
and start farming, how do you break into
transgenic salmon would threaten
that market. The unfortunate thing is that
and adversely affect wild Atlantic
there is no other processing. I take that
salmon, currently on the Endan-
back. Naturally Potatoes, in Mars Hill,
gered Species List. Federal agen-
who pretty much went under and got res-
cies are required by Section 7 of
cued by an outside financial source. They
the ESA to consult with the expert
[make] chopped up potatoes that are half-
fisheries agencies when any action
cooked in a plastic bag in the vegetable
may impact a protected species. As
section. You can just throw them in the
part of the consultation, the expert
microwave and finish cooking them. It’s a
agencies draft a Biological Opinion
partially processed, partially-cooked prod-
explaining under what circumstance
uct. That came in maybe 10-12 years ago.
the proposed activity would not
But it’s small. I think three farmers provide endanger the survival of the protect-
all the potatoes they need.
ed species. The Biological Opinion
SS: I can’t image there is much of a market for
here analyzed the authorization of
parboiled potatoes.
net pen salmon aquaculture and
required “the prohibition on the
TR: No. Well, they’re that much faster for
preparation, but at the same time your
use of transgenic salmonids at
shelf life goes down. I think they did a
existing marine sites off the coast
good job marketing, I just don’t think it
of Maine in order to eliminate the
took.
potentially adverse disease and
ecological risks posed by the
SS: What do you think farmers are going to be use of transgenic salmonids in
growing in Aroostook if it’s not going to be aquaculture.
potato country?
Center For Food Safety,
October 23, 2010 U
See GOIN’ OUT on page 8
Page 8 Saving Seeds — Winter 2011 www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
are falling apart. For a long Same thing with my siblings,
GOIN’ OUT from page 7 time people worked in the cousins. We’re a very, very
TR: The broccoli thing is a big deal, but woods or they farmed and close family. My parents have
you’ve got to have migrant workers or they made it. They survived. been married over 30 years
people to work or harvest. I think broc- The people who worked for now. How many people my
coli’s great. There’s been talk of an oil the farmers could survive. But age can say they’re parents are
press of some sort [for] soybeans. I don’t the costs of living have still married after 30 years. Not
know many who’ve had excellent luck increased. Living in a home is that many. I didn’t realize it
with it. I don’t think enough attention and the same idea as operating a until a few years ago. Needless
research has been put into it. It’s one of farm. The food you buy, the to say, none of my family mem-
those things, you’ll get a few farmers will fuel to heat your home. Every- bers have drug problems. Grant-
try something and if they don’t make thing has increased ex- ed I love to drink (laughs)! I
enough money on it they’ll just forget ponentially. Even the house I think the increase in drug use is
about it and go back to growing potatoes. live in now was built with a community as a whole. The
With the beans and the grains, there is just hardly any insulation because style of the family farm or the
such a demand for some of these grains when it was built you could family-run business or the fam-
now, especially with local grain mills in buy fuel for four cents a gallon. ily-run anything is withering. I
the area. The whole organic side, which SS: And the jobs aren’t there to mean it kind of falls apart.
isn’t catching on quite as fast, but even provide the income. Downeast, for example, used
conventional. With American society as a to be big mill towns. Mill
whole becoming a little more aware of TR: To compensate the differ- towns are mill towns, they’ve
what we’re eating I think there is going to ence. Fuel is a perfect example. always got their drug and alco-
be greater demand for some of these crops It was four cents 50 years ago hol problems. It’s pretty pre-

Andrianna Natsoulas
that have almost been forgotten. and now gasoline is $3.17 a dictable. Now the mills are
Back in the day they grew peas in the gallon. gone and the drug problems
county, and that was huge. For a while You can buy property have taken over. People used
they did sugar beets and that was huge. cheap up there. But there’s no Food for Maine’s Future is attempting to grow seed potatoes on a to work, now they just have
There are all kinds of stories about the guy work there, especially in the drug problems. The percentage
who brought in the sugar beets running off field I work in. In my area now of the population in a town like
that with drug problems is out
small-scale in Sedgwick.
with everybody’s money, or something I’ve got enough work. We just
like that. He introduced them and sold hired another person. Of course I travel all ic issues of farming and how difficult it is to of control. Much further beyond anything
everyone growing on them. Then he over the central portion of the state. But to make money farming? I could understand.
processed them and he handled all that be centrally-based out of the County TR: No. People who aren’t from up there, SS: And this is what, meth, pills...?
deal and he took off with everyone’s there’s just not enough. There’s no indus- even some people who are from up there TR: I haven’t a clue. I think when a com-
money. But I don’t know anything else try, there’s no major commercial effect to who aren’t involved, you know they’re munity as a whole losses something they
about growing peas. Why did they diver- draw somebody. Now a large-scale pro- dad works at the bank. Really what compensate with something else. Let’s say
sify then but they’re not willing to now, to cessing facility would do tons of things. involvement do they have or what are a mill shuts down, or potato farming in
try other crops? Put another McCain’s-like facility in they aware of in the family across town.
Southern Aroostook County and then all It’s not something guys on the basketball [my town], it used to be so big, now it’s a
SS: That’s a good question. Why do you think of a sudden there would be a huge influx team talk about. Being from the outside fraction of that. Which means it takes a
that is? and demand not only for jobs but for a you wonder if it was poor business deci- fraction of the people in the community to
do that. Now what are they going to do?
TR: It’s generational. And the costs product. sions or why all this goes down but it’s not
involved with operating now are so much SS: My grandmother lives across the road from something that doesn’t concern you when SS: What are they doing?
higher now that you don’t just grow 20 a potato field and when I visit she takes out a you’re 16 years old. At least it didn’t con- TR: I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know how
acres of something to try it without serious box of Idaho potato flakes. Breaks my heart. cern me, maybe I’m speaking for myself. people are doing it. There hasn’t been any-
financial investment. But I knew when another farmer was in thing to absorb the difference. I don’t
TR: I’m lucky that a lot of my friends are trouble. That made sense to me. I was know if people are unemployed, people
SS: We’re both from the County and we both aware enough to understand carbon foot-
aware of that, I knew what that was like. are moving, people are doing what? In my
left the County. What is your perspective on print and the importance of what you’re
the opportunities for young people. opinion, that’s when the factors like drug
eating. I think it’s a generational thing. I SS: Do you see any connection in the rise of use and everything else come up. They
TR: As a whole? get into discussions with people about drug use in rural Maine and the degradation of don’t have anything else to do.
these same exact issues. Being aware those communities, including the lack of oppor- Now I’m not saying there are any
SS: As a whole, but also for young farmers. makes a big difference. tunity for young people? opportunities. I think much of it is lack of
TR: There aren’t a lot of incentives for peo- TR: It goes even bigger than that. I know ambition to make your own opportunity. I
ple to stay home. The manufacturing jobs SS: Do you think they’re aware of the econom- that I’m a very small percentage, I grew up don’t know about you but people always
in a very, very close family, very tight fam- ask me, ‘you grew up where? What did
seed for future Roundup Ready sugar ily. My parents are great friends, still to this you do?’ We never ran out of things to do.
DESTRUCTION OF A GMO CROP beet crops, even though the crops are day. If I don’t talk to them every other day Never. There was always tons of stuff to
still illegal to grow, and no EIS has been they call me wondering if something is do. It was a mile to the nearest kids house.
prepared. The seed growers rushed to wrong. It’s not because I miss my mom You know, it was only mile — we rode our
continued from page 1
announced it had opened a formal plant the seed crop in Oregon and Ari- and dad it’s because they’re my friends. bikes. U
investigation into possible anticompet- zona, apparently hoping to outrun the
itive practices in Monsanto’s use of legal action to stop it. In this latest case,
such patented crops. Growing previous USDA argued that the seedlings were SAVING SEEDS NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
Roundup Ready crops such as soy, cot- separate from the rest of the sugar beet
ton, and corn have led to greater use of crop cycle and had no impact by them-
I thought we had the best newsletter . . . Saving Seeds is fantastic.
“ ”
herbicides. It also has led to the spread selves, but Judge White rejected this.
—John Kinsman, president, Family Farm Defenders, organic dairy farmer
of herbicide resistant weeds on millions He found that the law requires USDA
of acres throughout the United States to analyze the impacts of not only the
There’s nothing like [Saving Seeds].
“ ” —CR Lawn, Fedco Seeds
As publisher of Saving Seeds, Food for Maine’s Future provides a valuable serv-
ice to people looking for local, bottom-up alternatives to the corporate-run
global food system. Our collection of food news and views from Maine and
“ USDA thumbed its nose at the judicial system
and the public by allowing this crop to be grown without around the world influences and shapes the debate around key issues like
access to farmland and working waterfront, corporate concentration, resistance
any environmental review. Herbicide resistant crops to GMOs and the false promises of biotech, and food sovereignty. Saving Seeds
just like this have been shown to result in more toxic also publishes how-to articles about seed saving and small-scale food produc-
tion so you can Grow Your Own Liberation!
” For just $25 you can help us print and distribute 100 issues of this important
chemicals in our soil and water.
publication. $1,500 will cover the production and distribution for an entire
and other countries where such crops seedlings, but the rest of the Roundup
issue! If you appreciate the hard-hitting analysis, the practical advice, and the
are grown, and contamination of con- Ready sugar beet production process as
stories from the global grassroots then give what you can today and help us
ventional and organic crops, which has well, before any part of that process can
keep our voice at the table.
been costly to U.S. farmers. There is begin.
also evidence that such herbicide- Courts have twice rescinded USDA’s Name ______________________________________________________________________
resistant crops may be more susceptible approval of biotech crops. The first
to serious plant diseases. such crop, Roundup Ready alfalfa, is Address ____________________________________________________________________
In an earlier case the court ruled that also illegal to plant, based on the vacat- Phone _______________________________E-mail ________________________________
USDA had violated NEPA by allowing ing of its deregulation in 2007 pending
the crop to be commercialized without preparation of an EIS. Although Mon- ___$25 ___$35 ___$50 ___$100 ___$250 ___$500 ___$1,500+
first preparing an Environmental santo appealed that case all the way to
Impact Statement (EIS). In August the the Supreme Court and the High Court Please make checks for $100 or more to Food for Maine’s Future/SHI (our fiscal sponsor).
court made any future planting and set aside part of the relief granted, the Note Saving Seeds in memo line of check.
sale unlawful until USDA complies full prohibition on its planting — based Checks less than $100 can be made directly to Food for Maine’s Future.
with federal law. (USDA has said it on the same initial remedy granted
Mail to: Food for Maine’s Future, PO Box 51, Sedgwick, Maine 04676
expects to complete an EIS in spring here, the vacatur ñ remains in place.
2012.) But almost immediately after the This case is Center for Food Safety v. Visit Food for Maine’s Future website at www.SavingSeeds.wordpress.com
ruling, USDA issued permits allowing Vilsack, No. C10-04038 JSW (N.D. Cal. For more information call 207-244-0908.
companies to plant seedlings to produce 2010). U